a modern interpretation of scripture

Bush may be adhering to a modern interpretation of scripture only a little too well. With the industrial revolution came hitherto (see I read my Marx - he says things like "hitherto" a lot) undreamnt of opportunities to exploit the labour of our fellow man and the church responded to this new development by emphasizing the "forgiveness" aspect of Jesus' teachings. The old "so long as one has faith in Jesus salvation is yours" deal regardless of whether any serious effort was made to live an ethical life. I've known "Christians", meaning people who professed the faith and went to church regularly, who appeared to live by precisely such a code.

Here is Han SuYin's infinitely preferable take on the situation...

Quote:
" 'Ah,' said Prem, sighing, 'never does one have to wait for all eternity, you know. Not if you are a Buddhist. The Lord of Compassion is not ruthless and absolute, damning forever, as your God is. The only trouble is that in this dimension there is no convenient scapegoat, as you have in yours. The invention of the scapegoat was an excellent way of evading responsbility. Once you have laid your sins upon one, you felt exonerated. But here it's different. Here it's quite different. No one can bear your sins for you. On the contrary. We are collectively responsible for all misdeeds, and the innocent pay for the guilty, but the guilty are still guilty, all of them together. It's somehow more fair, isn't it, than the other way round? But it takes longer, it's not so neat and packaged as your formulae..."